Work to Do
by MuchTooHighACost
Summary: Tony's done in the workshop for now, but he's got work to do elsewhere. Post-IM3, spoilers.


**Gratuitous Pepperony smut with very slight spoilers for IM3. But if you haven't seen it by now, come on...**

* * *

She was awoken by a shift in the bed beside her. The springs of the mattress yielded, and the comforting smell of cologne and motor oil indicated that Tony had finally decided to come to bed. Pepper's mind was foggy with sleep, but she managed to mutter, "You finally finished working?"

Tony let out a groan and then a sigh of relief. "Yes. I am done."

"Good," she mumbled, and shut her eyes again. She turned away from him, fluffing the pillow with the hand that wasn't trapped under it.

"In the workshop, anyway," Tony continued. His voice was deep and throaty. "I think I've still got some work to do up here, though."

Even through the haze of exhaustion, Pepper knew what was coming. The sheets rustled and she knew he was reaching out to touch her. She made a noise that sounded like, "Get off," and rolled away.

"Come on, Pep."

"I'm sleeping."

"And talking to me at the same time? Wow, you should put that on your resume."

"I _was _sleeping," she snapped, burying her head under the pillow.

"Until I came up here and awakened your inner sex kitten," Tony suggested.

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Hmm. Well maybe I don't know you as well as I thought. We should use this time to get better acquainted with each other."

He reached for her again, but this time Pepper extended a hand of her own to block him, and instead of meeting the material of an old, sweaty t-shirt like she'd expected, her hand found soft, supple skin. Smooth and clean and chiseled.

"Yeah, I'm naked," Tony said, confirming her analysis.

"Well you're in the right place for it," Pepper muttered, trying to shut down her now very awake brain.

"The right place is a little lower," Tony urged.

Pepper's heart jumped in her chest. She hadn't moved her hand, she realized, and it was taking every fiber of her willpower not to follow the strong line of his abdomen down past his navel to the place that made him squirm when she brushed her fingernails over it.

"Tony, another night," she sighed, trying to convince herself now as well.

"I'm awake, you're awake—"

"I wasn't."

"How nice would it be for two _awake _people to have sexual intercourse?"

"It was _one time_!" Pepper shouted, fully alert now and sitting upright. "I fell asleep one time, Tony, and you will not let me forget it!"

"It's never happened to me before," he pouted.

"There's a first time for everything."

"There's a joke in there somewhere," Tony quipped.

"No jokes, Tony, I just want to sleep." Pepper sighed from her seated position and looked down at him, sprawled across the bed, naked under the sheet. She wasn't entirely convinced that she did want to sleep.

"You fell asleep while I was on top of you," Tony said after a moment. His voice was quiet, vulnerable. She'd never heard him speak quite this way before. It was disarming and probably a ploy to get her to succumb. It was working.

"Baby," she sighed, running an absentminded hand through his thick, dark hair. "I'm sorry."

"Am I really that inept?"

"Tony, you are many things, but inept is not one of them," Pepper assured him, speaking the truth. "You could never be inept at anything."

He shifted to look up at her, to meet her crystalline eyes with his deep ones, and the sheet slid down, almost revealing to her his most intimate parts. Pepper felt desire stirring inside her and knew she couldn't keep it at bay for much longer.

"Thanks, Pep." His voice was low and gravelly again, and she bit her lip to try and steady the shuddering rush of breath building up inside her chest.

"Tony, I want—"

"I know."

She wasn't sure how it happened, how she suddenly found herself on her back with her legs planted on either side of Tony's strong, supple frame. But it happened, and she let out a squeal of delight. Tony's stubble brushed against the silky skin of her neck as he kissed her there, making her squirm beneath him and his growing prominence.

His name fell from her lips and her hips bucked up to meet his, both unbidden and coming from some dark, primal place inside of her that only he seemed able to awaken. Tony fumbled with pulling her shirt over her head, leaving her thin frame bare before him, save for the scrap of lace that covered her most intimate area. He bent his head reverently, kissing the side of one of her breasts, and then taking the peak in his mouth.

Pepper let out a shuddering breath and grabbed his biceps, her nails leaving half-moon indents in the muscled flesh. She whispered his name again; this time it was a plea, a prayer to give her what she wanted, to fill her and make her whole once more.

Tony obliged, hooking a finger into her underwear and dragging it slowly down her long, long legs that seemed to go on forever. She was trembling with desire as he ran a finger over her wetness, teasing.

"Why Ms. Potts," he growled, "I do believe you're quite awake now."

"Shut up and fuck me," Pepper moaned.

She was surprisingly vocal in bed, Tony had been delighted to discover. While calm and reserved in the daylight, when Pepper was between sheets she had a naughty streak that Tony had only experienced in his wildest dreams. He rolled her over, reveling in the curve of her hips, the tight smooth skin across her ass. From this new position he slid a finger against her again, then mercifully slipped the finger inside her. Pepper groaned curses into the pillow, squirming with delight from his ministrations. She cried out when he removed his finger, and then let her eyes flutter shut in pure pleasure when he entered her from behind, his full length sheathed inside of her.

Two became one.

Tony moved slowly at first, still in disbelief at how good she felt, how tight she was, how unreal it was when she grabbed fistfuls of sheets and moaned his name into the pillows of the bed they shared together. He was the luckiest man in the world.

"I want to look at you," Pepper panted, making her first coherent words since they'd begun their lovemaking.

"Is that what you want?" Tony asked, teasing her. He slowed his thrusts.

"I want to look at you when I make you come," she whispered over her shoulder, and Tony didn't need to hear her say it twice.

He pulled out and gingerly flipped her over so she was lying on her back. When he entered her this time he watched her face closely, the way her mouth opened and her eyes shut involuntarily, the picture of ecstasy. And she was his. All his. Somehow, this perfect woman had chosen to be with _him_, to share her secrets and her bed with him, to trust him completely. She astounded him every minute of every day.

"Tony," Pepper whimpered beneath him. "Fuck, you feel so good, baby."

"God, Pepper, I'm going to—"

He felt her come undone, contracting around him, and he followed soon after, shuddering atop her and then slowly sinking down to lay his chest on hers. Skin on skin, slick and sweaty and… different.

"Do you miss it?" Pepper asked, her ears still ringing from the intensity of her orgasm.

Tony rolled off her and expelled a puff of air. "Sometimes. Some days it's all I think about. And then others… I hardly even notice it's gone."

Pepper leaned up on one elbow and traced the faint, thin, circle-shaped scar on his chest where the arc reactor had been, a part of him for half a decade. She couldn't imagine what it must feel like, to know that something that had once been a piece of you was gone.

"It was brave of you," she whispered, bending to kiss the center of the circle. "I know it was hard to do."

"Not nearly as hard as cracking the Extremis code," Tony sighed, "and even then I still didn't get it perfect. Don't blame me if you start having hot flashes early."

"Ha, ha…" Pepper shoved him playfully, then rolled to a sitting position and stretched, her eyes scrunching together, away from the bangs that swept across her forehead. She stood and moved slowly across the huge room in the dark.

"Where are you going?" Tony muttered.

"The bathroom," Pepper murmured, her voice coming to him out of the darkness. "I think you know, Mr. Stark, that I won't get into bed unless I'm clean. And I've been very, very dirty. Care to clean up with me?"

"I like the staying dirty idea…" Tony stammered, stumbling to his feet and following her into the bathroom.

Pepper reached into the shower and turned it on, letting the room fill up with steam as the water reached the temperature she liked—so hot she could barely stand it. She stood at the vanity, running a hand through her hair in the mirror when Tony came up behind her and took hold of her waist possessively. There was something about a man standing behind her that Pepper had always found incredibly erotic, especially when Tony did it. She watched them in the mirror, their bodies moving ever so slightly against each other, barely able to stand still in each other's presence.

Tony rested his chin on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck with his nose. Pepper giggled.

"That tickles," she murmured.

"Oh, you're ticklish, are you, Ms. Potts?" Tony growled into her ear.

She let out a shriek before he'd even begun, and doubled over at the waist when his hands attacked her sides, tickling the soft, sensitive skin there.

"Stop! Stop!" she begged, laughing.

Suddenly, Tony whirled her around and kissed her soundly, tasting the sweet skin of her lips and the tantalizing moistness of her tongue. His own tongue delved into her mouth, sweeping spaces and claiming them as his own. She responded eagerly, wrapping her arms around his neck and moving sweetly against him, making him hard once more.

"Tony," she breathed against his cheek.

Before Pepper knew what was happening Tony had lifted her by her thighs and placed her on top of the vanity, her ass against the cool, hard marble. He bent his head and took one of her perky nipples into his mouth. Pepper moaned and leaned into him, holding his head to her chest. His tongue swirled around the peak, making her breath come in erratic spurts and her cheeks flush with red. Tony moved to her other breast, taking her even deeper into his mouth and she moaned, a truly wanton sound that echoed off the tiled walls of the cavernous en suite.

Spurred on by her encouragements, Tony knelt to the floor and spread Pepper's legs apart, pulling her to the edge of the countertop. Tenderly, gingerly, he licked her slick folds with his tongue, and with a shuddering breath she whimpered and bit her lip. Pepper was afraid that if she truly let loose it would sound disingenuous. No man had ever made her feel as much pleasure as Tony. She'd been treated well, sought after, fought over, even, once in school. But no one had ever desired her as much as Tony did. Sometimes his need for her was so overpowering she was literally afraid he would tackle her the second she walked into a room. He was raw and carnal and tender, all at the same time, he was…

"Holy _shit_," Pepper hissed as he slipped a finger inside of her while still lapping sweetly at the warmth between her legs. She wound a fist into his hair, holding his head between her thighs, though she doubted he was going somewhere any time soon. Her legs quivered on the edge of the vanity, and the springs coiling tight inside her felt as if they were about to explode at any second.

"God, Tony, you're—"

She never finished her sentence, but it was just as well; he was already too full of himself anyway. Pepper gasped out her second orgasm of the evening, stringing together some _fucks _and Tony's name muttered several times over.

He rose to his feet, and she rested her head against his chest, spent, though every nerve in her body felt more awake than ever. Wordlessly, she took his hand and together they walked into the shower. The custom jets were a feature that they'd kept when they'd designed the new house. Tony had bragged about his shower to girls back in the old days, and Pepper could remember rolling her eyes and thinking with a twinge of jealousy she'd never admit to herself, _it's just a shower, how great can it be? _

The answer, she discovered, very shortly into their relationship, was pretty fucking great. Water seemed to come from every angle on the tiled wall, engulfing them in a column of steam and comfort. Even after their red-hot encounter on the vanity, the water still wasn't hot enough for Pepper, and she reached over to adjust the dial on the wall.

When Tony raised a querying eyebrow, she said in a low, throaty, voice, "If you can't take the heat, Mr. Stark, get out of the shower."

"I'm not in a rush to get anywhere," he said, feigning nonchalance.

"Good," she whispered in the same mellifluous voice, "because I'm not quite done with you yet."

She reached a hand between them and cupped him against her palm, marveling at the jolt of electricity it sent through her. Slowly at first, she stroked him, up and down, reaching to fondle his balls the way she knew he liked, brushing her fingernails against the tops of his thighs, her mouth an inch from his the whole time. Even with the water pounding all around them, she could hear every intake of breath, each groan low in the back of his throat, each purr.

When she was ready, she sank to her knees and took him into her mouth. Tony was the only man she'd ever enjoyed doing this for. In her past relationships, it was something she'd almost dreaded. But with Tony, pleasuring him was pleasure for her, too—because he never failed to acknowledge just how much he loved it. He held her head with his hand, not forcefully, but almost tenderly, and softly moaned her name between masculine grunts of ecstasy.

"Pepper, I want you," he managed to say. "I need you."

She came to her feet and he ran his hands up her sides, admiring the way the water rolled down her curves, over the pale peaks of her breasts. He gripped her hips possessively and positioned himself at her entrance, then locked eyes with her.

"I love you, you know," he said.

Pepper nearly rolled her eyes in exasperation. "God, Tony, I love you too, but your timing is a little—"

She gasped as he entered her, taking her by surprise. A laugh formed low in her diaphragm and by the time it came out of her mouth it was a moan.

"What were you saying about my timing?" he asked, increasing the pace of his thrusts.

"Nothing…" she breathed, "it's perfect…"

She clung to him as best she could with the water slipping between them, around them, inside them. Wordlessly, Tony backed them up against the cool tiled wall and continued his rhythm, his breaths coming in short spurts against the skin of Pepper's neck. He watched in awe as her face shifted and changed with his movements. She bit her lip, she squeezed her eyes shut, she let her mouth fall into a round 'o'. God, she was beautiful.

"God, you're beautiful," he told her.

She ground her hips up into his, pulling him deeper inside of her. It never felt like she could get close enough to him. Even now, joined together in the most intimate of ways, Pepper wanted him more, wanted all of him. She felt the pressure building up inside her, between them, and she cried out.

"Tony, I—"

The rest became unintelligible as she tumbled over the edge, her climax ripping through her, leaving her shaking against the shower wall as Tony tumbled with her.

"Holy shit…" she breathed, wiping her hair back from her face. "Holy shit…"

"I love it when you swear," Tony said, grinning like an idiot.

She swatted his arm with a disapproving smirk, but then squeezed it affectionately. "Care to rinse me off, Mr. Stark?"

"That, I can do."

Pepper let him take control, albeit much more gently this time, and guide her under the steady, thrumming stream of water. She shut her eyes, trusting him completely as his strong, capable hands smoothed her hair back and then lathered it with shampoo. She felt the pads of his fingers gently massage her scalp, tugging at the roots of her hair in a way that made her moan.

"You like that?" Tony mocked her.

She cast a disapproving smirk over her shoulder. "I had it up all day. It feels good to take it down."

"Yeah, I bet it does," Tony said, sliding a slick hand down her side and across the front of her body.

Pepper slapped him away. "You're insatiable."

"Can you blame me?"

"I would if I could understand why," she said briskly, turning around and washing the shampoo out of her hair.

"What do you mean?" he asked, admiring the way the water slid over the small peaks of her breasts and down the taut plane of her stomach.

"Your… desire for me is endless," Pepper said, cheeks flushing. "I don't get it."

"Pepper…" Tony reached behind her and turned off the water.

She was cold for a second without the steaming hot liquid raining down on her, but only for a moment before Tony enveloped her in a hug.

"You are the light of my life," he said, his voice rumbling low against her neck. "You are the reason I get up in the morning, and you have been for a long time. Much longer than you know." He pulled away and looked her in the eye. "You're the one, Pep."

Embarrassed for being stared at for so long, she looked down at the floor. "You're everything, Tony. All of it."

He reached out and lightly touched his fingers to her wrist, first, then pulled her hand into his. His other hand settled on the curve of her hip, pulling her closer so that their bodies were almost touching. His eyes were so deep, Pepper noticed; they always were, but now even more so. Sometimes when she looked at him for too long it felt like she was falling. Tony pulled her into a hug, his arms snug behind her back, holding her close to his chest, rocking her gently as their feet pitter-pattered in the puddles of the shower.

Finally, after a comfortable moment, he mumbled into her ear, "Bedtime?"

She smirked. "Yes, Tony. Yes it is."


End file.
